River(Impounds): Krishna River
Location: Bijapur district – Karnataka
Opening: 2005
Height: 52.25 m
Length: 1565.15 m
HISTORY:
The Almatti Dam is a hydroelectric project on the Krishna River[1] in North Karnataka, India which was completed in July 2005. The target annual electric output of the dam is 560 MU (or GWh).
The Almatti Dam is the main reservoir of the Upper Krishna Irrigation Project; the 290 MW power station is located on the right side of the Almatti Dam. The facility uses vertical kaplan turbines: five 55MW generators and one 15MW generator. Water is released in to the Narayanpur reservoir after using for power generation to serve the downstream irrigation needs.
During the initial stages of the project, estimated costs were projected as Rs.14.70 billion, but following the transfer of project’s management to the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL), the estimated cost was reduced by over fifty percent to Rs. 6.74 billion. The KPCL eventually completed the project at an even lower cost of Rs. 5.20 billion.[citation needed] The entire dam was finished in less than forty months, with construction ending in July 2005. The dam is located on the edge of Bijapur and Bagalkot districts. Geographically, it is located in the Bijapur district, but large areas of Bagalkot district have also been submerged due to filling of the reservoir.[citation needed] The dam holds a gross water storage capacity of 123.08 TMC at 519 meters MSL.